Main-Topical

News Archive

María Aranda, one of the nation’s leading experts in the study of adults living with medical, functional and psychiatric illnesses, has been appointed the executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging. Named for the late Rep. Edward R. Roybal, the institute’s mission is to enhance the quality of life for older adults and persons aging with disabilities through research, innovation and advocacy.

From women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement to contemporary issues of race, class and beyond, these seven women have dedicated their lives to changing their communities — and the world.

Black History Month celebrates the contributions of African-American pioneers and visionaries across every field. Explore the lives of these extraordinary women whose work has changed, and continues to change, the field of social work.

Empathy is a core human attribute — but it is far from infallible. In social work, an empathy gap tied to racial identity can lead to worse outcomes for people of color.

We like to think of ourselves and our colleagues as empathetic, but our experiences and actions can often contradict this notion. What does this mean for education and the world at large, and how can we improve this?

Unwanted phone calls or texts? Threats of violence or blackmail? If this sounds familiar, you might be a victim of stalking.

Whether in person or on the internet, being stalked is a uniquely terrifying and isolating experience. Victims may be afraid to report their stalker out of fear of retaliation, or be unsure where the dividing line falls between innocent behavior and obsessive, potentially dangerous tendencies.

But the more we talk about this behavior, the more we can do to stop it.

California is facing a growing foster care dilemma: In the current economy, the state’s social services agencies are having an especially difficult time recruiting resource families to care for very young children after they have been removed from their homes.

As a call to action on urgent problems such as homelessness, the health gap and mass incarceration, the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work is taking part in the Grand Challenges for Social Work. Organized by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, this a national effort to achieve societal progress by identifying specific challenges that social work can play a central role in overcoming.

USC’s Global Immersion Program gives insight into the state of sex tourism and human trafficking in the Philippines.

Thanks to relaxed trade agreements and a globalized economy, poverty, patriarchy and other root causes, human trafficking — essentially modern-day slavery — is the fastest-growing enterprise in the world. Having spread to more than 100 countries worldwide, this phenomenon is especially prevalent in countries such as the Philippines, where migrant labor is plentiful and regulations protecting workers are limited.